Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – Ultimate Sith Edition Preview

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Starkiller is back to make the PC bend to the Force.

By Jeff Haynes

The established universe and lore of Star Wars has been of the most closely protected properties in entertainment. Few changes, if any, are ever made to the history or the traditional stories shown within the six films that make up the canon of the struggle between the Empire and the Rebellion. Last year, however, Lucasarts threw caution to the wind and decided to revamp a segment of its well-established lore. The result was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Almost a year has passed, and while console players have been wielding force lightning and force pushes, the PC gamer has been left out in the cold. That's all going to change this November, when Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – Ultimate Sith Edition is released.

In case you haven't been aware of the story of The Force Unleashed, allow me to provide a brief synopsis. Set some time between the third and fourth movies, you take on the role of Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice who was dispatched to do his master's dirty work around the galaxy. Of course, that involved hunting down and killing Jedi. While I won't spoil the story, the Ultimate Sith edition expands on the storyline significantly, adding three additional missions that crossover into Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as you travel to Tatooine and Hoth encountering a number of classic Star Wars characters. Of course, as a version that expands the scope of play, you'll have many more opportunities to strengthen your Sith powers until you become a force to truly be reckoned with.

Give into your anger.

While the build that I was shown was pre-alpha, what was more impressive was the amount of time it's taken to port the 360 build to the PC. Aspyr is handling the PC and Mac versions of the game, and only started working on the game at the end of July. However, they're in the process of optimizing everything from the graphics to the controls. While still incredibly early, all of the basic elements powering the gameplay, such as Havok physics, Digital Molecular Matter engine to process how brittle items are before they are destroyed and Euphoria for body simulations are all fully implemented. The 360 controller scheme has been included as well, but the mouse and keyboard works just fine. In fact, it's much easier to Force Grip objects by clicking the right mouse button and flicking your mouse to hurl items where you want them to go. This was demonstrated to me within the Tie Fighter construction facility, where a quick combination of the keyboard and the mouse allowed Starkiller to toss troopers like rag dolls into walls, off walkways and into vehicles.

Checking out the earlier areas was cool, but checking out Tatooine, one of the newest areas, was really fun. The mission, entitled A Fragile Hope (which was a play on the subtitle of A New Hope from the original Star Wars movie) took place after Princess Leia's ship had already been captured and destroyed. Ejecting the remains out into space, Starkiller landed on the planet below and commenced his search. One of the things pointed out to me was that the Ultimate Sith Edition will feature new costumes, at least one for each new location, so Starkiller was wrapped in an outfit that was somewhat reminiscent of the Tuskan Raiders as he traveled through the desert. Much of this involved initially killing Jawas and Raiders scattered around the cliffs, but as he moved along, he also wound up wielding the Force to blast a Sandcrawler off a cliff.

Eventually, Starkiller reached Jabba's palace, where he forced his way in by destroying the security gate with force lightning, which wasn't like his older lightning. Instead, his power had a purple tinge to it, more akin to the force lightning from the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. Of course, Starkiller didn't have any troopers to fight against; instead, he had Gamorrean guards to contend with, whose body was particularly resistant to Force Pushes and Grips. Their armor also provided significant protection to lightsaber strikes, making it particularly resistant to attacks. That was particularly challenging when facing off against three or more at one time.

This Rancor doesn't stand a chance.

Eventually, however, Starkiller fought through the guards and entered Jabba's throne room, but like the movies, the Hut dumped him into the Rancor pit, where he and other guards had to fight to survive. However, while my demo ended shortly after this section occurred, I was told that players will have the option to play through the newer levels without playing or beating the whole game first. So if you've played the console version, you won't have to feel stuck in trying to beat the entire experience all over again. How that will affect the basic level of your powers and abilities wasn't explained, but it was nice to know that the option was there, especially if you want a challenge.